Keith- thanks for the post, that was very rich. The note about different styles having different sets of internally consistant "rules" or guidelines is important, throws a real wrench in the works for discussion. But also excellent fuel for discussion!
One thought, do you think there are any universal ideas that dictate some aspects of these rulesets? My thought-- the ability to minimize muscle use (maximize ki and "kokyu" use) is a sort of super-rule that lots of the other rules of any given style are sort of subservient to. To relax and use whole-body ki instantly puts huge restraints of what patterns of movements would be allowed. This is my theory-in-progress so any opinions appreciated.

Chris--

Quote:

Chris Covington wrote:

A few years ago Kondo sensei (of Daito-ryu) told a few of us that one of the highest forms of aiki is being able to cut straight.

That is a SWEET story considering the Mochizuki "You guys don't know $#!^ about the sword" story!

Quote:

Chris Covington wrote:

In Shinkage-ryu we spend a great deal of time practicing straight cuts. In fact the first set of kata called Hojo is almost exclusively straight cuts. One thing we work on is keeping our hips square to the opponent.

Sounds like something I've heard about Nishio Sensei's style. Definitely something that can be pretty divisive when conversing across style lines.

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Josh Phillipson wrote:

How do you put aiki into a sword? How does ken become aikiken?

I've thought about that too.. 2 lines of thought are tempting to me. #1 is what Kondo sensei said (above). That is, unification of living, behaving bodies (aiki) cannot be done unless you have met that challenge within your own body ("building a budo body" or "putting aiki in your body" etc). #2 is that I have been fascinated with George Ledyard sensei's writings for a while, and although I still have a lot to learn, I am seeing that some of the more difficult ideas that fall under the term "aiki" (the part that happens before and at the beginning of an encounter, before physical contact) could be something that paired weapons practice really can give you... what do you think?